Monochrome plan view of the mouth of the Ares Vallis outflow channel
Monochrome plan view of the mouth of the Ares Vallis outflow channel
The nadir channel of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft acquired this image looking vertically down at the Ares Vallis outflow channel. The nadir channel provides the highest image resolution. The spacecraft passed over the mouth of Ares Vallis on 11 May 2011 at an altitude of about 300 kilometres, giving an image resolution of 15 metres per pixel. Ares Vallis meanders for over 1700 kilometres across the southern highlands of Mars and ends in an over 100-kilometre-wide delta-like region in the lowlands of Chryse Planitia. During the period of Mars’ early formation, large quantities of water flowed through the valley and eroded the rim of the 32-kilometre crater, Oraibi (right of centre). Streamlined ‘islands’ and terrace-like ‘river banks’ on the valley walls are also signs of erosion left on the landscape by the water that once flowed here.
Copyright note:
As a joint undertaking by DLR, ESA and FU Berlin, the Mars Express HRSC images are published under a Creative Commons licence since December 2014: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. This licence will also apply to all HRSC images released to date.
